The spicy spray is quickly replacing the more traditional self-defense weapon, Mace, that has been carried for years by police across the country. Departments in Middletown, Cromwell, Clinton and New Britain -- and even the FBI -- have equipped their officers with the stuff. State troopers are not far behind.

The public can laugh, law enforcement agencies say. They know that the pepper spray works; it has incapacitated criminals, drunks and vicious dogs and saved officers from wounds, sprains and costly workers' compensation claims.

"It's saving injuries and lives out there. It's the magic snake oil of the '90s," said Roland Ouellette, a former state trooper who is president of R.E.B. Security Training Inc. in Avon.

The sprays contain oleoresin capsicum, the flaming ingredient in cayenne pepper, in an alcohol spray. With a shot, victims' eyes clamp shut, burn and tear, and breathing becomes labored. The victims drop whatever they are holding.

To dispel the wimpy image, the manufacturers have attached tough, streetwise names to their cayenne pepper sprays -- Cap-Stun, Punch, Bushwacker, Karate in a Can.

The pepper spray succeeds where Mace does not, manufacturers and police say, because Mace does not always work.

Mace "doesn't work on psychotics, or people under the influence of drugs, or animals," Ouellette said. "And that's what you're dealing with."

The pepper spray allows officers to keep their distance from dangerous people -- saving them from punches, bites or worse. And Oullette says it has saved lives. A Norfolk, Va., police officer watched as a man who had just stabbed someone lunged toward her partner. Instead of shooting, the officer hit the man with the spray. He dropped his knife.

To be sure, Mace isn't yielding ground to its cayenne

competitor.

Vince Dassatti, general sales manager for Mark Sport Inc. of Bennington, Vt., which makes Mace, said the 25-year-old defense tool is just as safe and effective as pepper spray.

"It's dangerous to lead people to believe that any spray product will stop everyone any time," he said.

He recalled an incident two years ago in New York City in which police sprayed Cap-Stun on a mentally unstable man. When police then hit the man with an electronic stun gun, he exploded in flames. The man lived and has filed a lawsuit.

Ron Griner, sales and marketing manager for Zarc International of Bethesda, Md., which distributed Cap-Stun, says that version of Cap-Stun is not made anymore. But the other types of Cap-Stun should not be used near an open flame, he said.

Still, proponents say pepper sprays have one other advantage, an important one in this environmentally conscious world -- pepper spray is biodegradable.

Mace is essentially tear gas, a chemical called chloroacetylphenone. Its effects last longer and are lessened by scrubbing with soap and water. Pepper spray wears off in 45 minutes, and police do not always have to evacuate a room once it is sprayed. A splash of cold water cuts the effects.

"This is all organic -- oil and pepper," said Griner, whose company sells Cap-Stun to 2,000 law enforcement agencies.